Chapter 137: Family Visitations. 2001 CE

A woman was walking through the hospital halls rather quickly as she tried to find the room she was looking for.

“Room 420… room 420…” she murmured to herself. Behind her was another group of people, following her rather amusingly. As soon as they reached the edge of the corridor, they had found the room they were looking for, and the woman took a deep breath in front of the door as she tried to steel herself to enter the room.

This woman was of course Cleopatra, and behind her were the rest of the Apostles, except Grodd.

Cleo then opened the door, she could smell a familiar musk, and smiled, as she had missed the smell.

When she entered the room, there were only three people, Thena laying on the bed, feeding a boy, and Pluto, sitting on the sofa, working on some paperwork he needed to sign. As soon as she entered, Pluto and Thena’s eyes were on her, making her gulp.

“Father… mother…” she smiled nervously.

Pluto was a bit surprised at Cleo’s sudden visit. “Cleo, I didn’t know you'd come…” he stood up as he walked towards her, hugging her tightly as he patted her head. Pluto also saw the others behind her, and told the others to go in.

“Hello everyone, come in, just be a bit quiet, Theo’s sleeping.” he said calmly.

Pluto released Cleo from his grasp, and walked towards the sofa again. Meanwhile, Cleo was carefully observing the boy in Thena’s arms. She walked towards him, and peeked at his face.

“You want to hold him?” Thena smiled.

“O-Oh no…” Cleo stuttered. “I don’t think–”

“It’s fine Cleo, you can hold him.” Thena said, making Cleo relented. She held Theo in her arms, cooing the boy gently.

“He looks just like father…” Cleo murmured.

Anna walked to Pluto and hugged her, and Pluto kissed her forehead. “Does he have father’s eyes?”

“No, he doesn’t.” Pluto stated. “He’s got Thena’s eyes.”

“Well that’s good.” Jeanne hugged Pluto too. “Women will not like it if he has his eyes…”

“Hey! Theo will become a womaniser when he’s older, mark my words.” Cleo argued. “It is up to me then who is worthy of his embrace.”

Pluto chuckled as he shook Michel and Sasaki’s hands. “You guys get along?”

“Eh, we’ll manage.” Michel shrugged. “It’s been a unique family to be a part of…”

“How’s the Unseen Ones?” Pluto asked again, making the others froze in place.

The room one quiet for a minute, making Pluto raise its brow. “What? You think I won’t know that?”

Pluto walked to his stack of papers as he took it one by one. “Multiple strange deaths of my ex-employees that have been marked as a SHIELD or Hydra agent by me… multiple Hydra facilities that, again, have been marked by me suddenly vanished into thin air… along with the unusual peacefulness of my life here in New York…”

“W-Well… in our defence… we are your apostles… it is our job to protect you…” Anna stuttered.

“Oh, I’m not mad at you.” Pluto shrugged. “A bit proud really, I thought you all will just be lazing around until the time comes, turns out, you didn’t, so thumbs up to you guys…”

The apostles then sighed in relief as they heard Pluto’s words.

“But…” Pluto continued, making the others tense. “I heard about this Wenwu guy… What's his relationship with you Cleo?”

“W-What? N-No! Nothing!” Cleo stammered. “H-He’s just a man that was stalking me for hundreds of years… I-I just got rid of him by erasing his memories…” 

“How does he know you in the first place?” Pluto raised his eyebrow.

“W-Well…”

Pluto sighed. “Well, you keep track of him?”

Michel suddenly spoke. “He was searching for a mystical realm in the east, but I never saw him again after it, probably died…”

Pluto shrugged. “Okay… good enough answer.” he hummed. “How’s Grodd?”

“A bit stressed lately.” Anna sighed in pity. “Dictators around the world kept pressuring him to sell their weapons to them, it’s honestly pathetic, there’s also recently that extremist group trying to buy weapons from Zimera, but Grodd just kicked them off.”

“And you did nothing about it?”

“Our priority is you, father.” Jeanne answered. “We dedicated all of our resources protecting you and your family.”

Pluto sighed in disappointment. “Honestly, you called yourself my sons and daughters, yet you don’t want to help your siblings, my disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined…”

Thena meanwhile was watching this scene unfold rather amusingly, like a father scolding their children.

“Forgive me father, but our organisation was built for–”

“Well, I don’t need protection, so you could just disband this gang of misfits.” Pluto smiled. “What’s the point of you making that ‘organisation’ if you can’t even help Grodd during his reign as king? You used his tech, yet he got none of the benefits at all…”

“You’re right…” Sasaki spoke. “I have spoken about this many times… but the focus remained the same…”

Cleo gulped. “V-Very well father… we will not hesitate to help Grodd ever again…”

Pluto smiled as he ruffed Cleo’s hair. “Good.”

Suddenly, the door opened once again, and Sprite and Sersi entered the room, bringing some food for Pluto and Thena.

Once they saw the group inside the room, they froze a little. “Er… do you want some time alone?”

“No, Sprite, come with me.” Pluto said quickly, changing his attitude really quickly. Sprite just raised her eyebrow. “What for dude?”

“Just follow me, you’ll not regret it.”

Sprite looked at Sersi, which she just shrugged, and followed him.

—

Pluto and Sprite were now outside the hospital, walking through the streets of New York casually.

“Where are you taking me?” Sprite asked.

But then, the voice around Sprite suddenly dampened, and she felt like she had just entered another dimension.

“Not funny dude.” Sprite frowned.

“It’s not funny.” Pluto stated. “This is the mirror dimension, quite neat right?”

“Just get to the point.” Sprite grumbled.

Pluto sighed. “I can help you Sprite.”

Sprite raised her eyebrow. “What?”

“You want to age? I can give you a chance.” Pluto continued, surprising Sprite and made her drop her alertness.

“Y-You can do it?”

Pluto rolled his eyes. “How else can Theo be born?”

“W-Wait… you’re not joking right? Cause it’s not funny…”

“I’m not joking, Sprite, I’m trying to help you here.” Pluto stated. “But I must warn you, I do not know how it is going to work just yet, will you age until old age takes your life? Or will you stop ageing at a specific age is beyond me, just… think of this as a trial… because I do not know what will happen to Theo as well.”

“So I’m an experiment…” Sprite murmured, but her face turned to full of determination. “It doesn’t matter, win-win for me if it’s successful.”

“Are you sure?”

“I’m sure, just do it.”

“Very well.”

Pluto’s eyes turned blue as he raised his hand towards Sprite. Sprite’s eyes started to glow blue, her body floated, and it turned transparent, leaving only the pulsing nerves inside of her.

The pulse was pulsating rapidly as Pluto kept pouring the last of Ego’s energy towards her body, and it was rapidly changing, and around 15 minutes later, the process was finally finished, and Sprite dropped down to the ground, panting heavily, trying to breathe.

“D-Did… Did it work?” she questioned, laying on the ground.

“It should be.” Pluto nodded. “Congratulations Sprite, you can age now.”

Sprite’s panting then slowly turned into a chuckle, then to a laugh, then to a cry. 

“I-Is is it really?” she sobbed. “Is this really happening right now?”

Pluto walked towards her, he knelt just in front of her head as he ruffled her hair. “You need to go to school now.”

Sprite sat up, and instantly hugged Pluto. “Thank you…” she murmured. “Thank you so much…”

Pluto patted her back in comfort. “No need to thank me Sprite, I told you didn’t I? I’ll find a way…”

Sprite just hugged Pluto tighter, not wanting to let go.

“I still feel cosmic energy in you, which means you can still do illusions.” Pluto stated as they separated. “Try it.”

Sprite nodded as she wiped her tears. She waved her hands, and the entire surroundings became an entire scenery altogether. It was in the Domo, where every Eternals were gathering in the meeting hall, talking along casually, the good old days.

Pluto smiled. “Looks like you still have powers.” Pluto hummed. “Well, don’t use it too much, might run out… maybe, I don’t know…”

Sprite chuckled as the illusions faded. “Sure.”

“Come one, let’s go back to the others.” Pluto said as he grabbed her hand, walking along with her, passing the mirror dimension. “Tell Sersi you need to go to school.”

“I guess that’s the worst thing about this… school…”